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The pros and cons of building a house

A quick overview of the advantages and disadvantages of building a house.

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Complex roofing designs
Building a house is a time consuming endeavour. PHOTO | FILE

Building a house is often a better choice than buying an already built home for many reasons among them costs control and quality guarantee.

However, building a home is time consuming, strenuous, and can cost you a fortune. To help you make an informed decision, here are the pros and cons of building a house:

Advantages
1.) Control: When building a house you start with a clean slate and you don’t have to deal with the décor ideas of the previous owner. This gives you control over all the features and options that will be helpful to your family.

2.) Savings: You can save a substantial amount of money by building rather than buying a pre-existing house. This is because you will put up a house that suits all your needs and you will not have to spend extra funds redoing a home after purchasing it.

Besides you can always negotiate for better rates and discounts from your suppliers.

3.) Quality guarantee: By actively participating in the construction process right from the beginning, you will be able to ascertain that your house is built with high quality materials.

It is not easy to determine the quality of materials used on a newly built house, and it may be too late a year later when your walls begin to crack.

READ: A guide to buying off plan property in Nairobi

4.) Sustainability: Self building gives you the option of using energy saving features and eco-friendly materials that will save you money over the years while conserving the environment.

5.) Satisfaction: Watching your home take shape brick after the other gives you a sense of satisfaction and ownership that can only come from building your house.

Disadvantages
1.) Time: Building a house is a time consuming venture – taking months to a few years to complete. You could get overwhelmed along the way, not to mention that you will need to dig into your pocket to pay for alternative shelter as you wait for construction to finish.

2.) Cost overruns: This is easily the greatest risk of building. Unforeseen circumstances could occur in your project, forcing you to borrow to pay for the unexpected costs.

This can be devastating especially if the cost overrun exceed 30 per cent of the budget.

3.) Strenuous: Dealing with all the day-to-day issues of a construction project can be overwhelming and if you are not up to the task you may end up suffering stress.

Danson Kagai is a skilled architect with a degree from the University of Nairobi. He has a wealth of experience in covering mega projects in Kenya, and is passionate about the built environment.